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Editorial
When Failure Is Not an Option
August 2011
Dear Readers,
Why do we continue struggling to heal chronic wounds? We have many new products presented to us on a routine basis—each promising to be “the solution” to the treatment of wounds, yet few turn out to be more that just a variation on the same old theme. Currently, with the best of our therapies, we are only able to heal about 70%–80% of patients with chronic wounds.1–3 What do we have for the other 20%–30% of patients who don’t respond to these therapies? Why can’t someone figure out the basic pathophysiology of wounds and develop some way to treat them that would allow prompt, effective healing? Many reasons are purported—there are too many factors involved with chronic wounds that we just don’t understand, chronic wounds are not all the same, figuring out how to heal a wound is hard!—to name a few. I am aware of how difficult it is to heal chronic wounds, but we have some very smart people working on this problem. Why can’t we figure it out?
There is a story about Charles Kettering, a scientist and inventor, who was faced with a difficult problem seemingly no one could solve. In fact, the most noted and respected researchers in his company provided statistics and formulas proving their contention that the problem could not be solved. Undaunted by the failure of others, Kettering assigned the problem to a young researcher who had just joined the company. To see how the young man would react to being assigned a difficult problem, Kettering withheld the information that said the problem could not be solved. The young man virtually attacked the project. He worked tirelessly on a solution to the problem. He was not going to give up on this project. After several weeks of intensive work, he called Kettering to the lab to show him the solution to the problem. He had done the impossible, for in his mind failure was not an option.4
Why is failure an option when we deal with the monumental problem of chronic wounds? Is it because someone has said, “Oh, solving the chronic wound problem will be really hard!” or “There are so many factors involved, it will be impossible to solve the chronic wound problem!” If it were easy, anyone could do it! I refuse to believe that somewhere out there we don’t have a clinician or researcher who cannot help solve the problem. The first thing we need to do is decide that we can solve the problem. Then we need to focus our thoughts and energies on it until the goal is accomplished. As Robert Langer, a biomedical engineer and inventor said, “Many times when you try to do something in science or try to invent something, people will tell you that it’s impossible, that it will never work. I think that’s very rarely so. If you really believe in yourself and stick to things, there’s very little that’s really impossible.” Think of the things through time that have been said to be impossible. Flying in airplanes, space travel, going to the moon, sending a voice over a wire and now even through space, are just a few of the things considered impossible just a few years ago. Today’s impossible is just tomorrow’s routine. With that in mind let’s get to work on today’s impossible. With the treatment of chronic wounds, the stakes are too high for us to consider failure an option. Besides, as Walt Disney said, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”
“There is no greater joy is life than finding something is impossible and then showing how it can be done.”
–Sir Barnes Wallis, pioneer in aviation and munitions technology
1. Veves A, Falanga V, Armstrong DG, Sabolinski ML; Apligraf Diabetic Foot Ulcer Study. Graftskin, a human skin equivalent, is effective in the management of noninfected neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers: a prospective randomized multicenter clinical trial. Diabetes Care. 2001;24(2):290–295.
2. Steinberg JS, Edmonds M, Hurley DP Jr, King WN. Confirmatory data from EU study supports Apligraf for the treatment of neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 2010;100(1):73–77.
3. Treadwell TA, Fuentes ML, Walker D. Wound bed preparation prior to the use of bi-layered tissue engineered skin: the role of protease modulation. Wound Repair Regen. 2008;16(2):A19.
4. God’s Little Devotional Book. Colorado Springs, CO; Honor Books. 1995:289–290.
There is a story about Charles Kettering, a scientist and inventor, who was faced with a difficult problem seemingly no one could solve. In fact, the most noted and respected researchers in his company provided statistics and formulas proving their contention that the problem could not be solved. Undaunted by the failure of others, Kettering assigned the problem to a young researcher who had just joined the company. To see how the young man would react to being assigned a difficult problem, Kettering withheld the information that said the problem could not be solved. The young man virtually attacked the project. He worked tirelessly on a solution to the problem. He was not going to give up on this project. After several weeks of intensive work, he called Kettering to the lab to show him the solution to the problem. He had done the impossible, for in his mind failure was not an option.4
Why is failure an option when we deal with the monumental problem of chronic wounds? Is it because someone has said, “Oh, solving the chronic wound problem will be really hard!” or “There are so many factors involved, it will be impossible to solve the chronic wound problem!” If it were easy, anyone could do it! I refuse to believe that somewhere out there we don’t have a clinician or researcher who cannot help solve the problem. The first thing we need to do is decide that we can solve the problem. Then we need to focus our thoughts and energies on it until the goal is accomplished. As Robert Langer, a biomedical engineer and inventor said, “Many times when you try to do something in science or try to invent something, people will tell you that it’s impossible, that it will never work. I think that’s very rarely so. If you really believe in yourself and stick to things, there’s very little that’s really impossible.” Think of the things through time that have been said to be impossible. Flying in airplanes, space travel, going to the moon, sending a voice over a wire and now even through space, are just a few of the things considered impossible just a few years ago. Today’s impossible is just tomorrow’s routine. With that in mind let’s get to work on today’s impossible. With the treatment of chronic wounds, the stakes are too high for us to consider failure an option. Besides, as Walt Disney said, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”
“There is no greater joy is life than finding something is impossible and then showing how it can be done.”
–Sir Barnes Wallis, pioneer in aviation and munitions technology
1. Veves A, Falanga V, Armstrong DG, Sabolinski ML; Apligraf Diabetic Foot Ulcer Study. Graftskin, a human skin equivalent, is effective in the management of noninfected neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers: a prospective randomized multicenter clinical trial. Diabetes Care. 2001;24(2):290–295.
2. Steinberg JS, Edmonds M, Hurley DP Jr, King WN. Confirmatory data from EU study supports Apligraf for the treatment of neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 2010;100(1):73–77.
3. Treadwell TA, Fuentes ML, Walker D. Wound bed preparation prior to the use of bi-layered tissue engineered skin: the role of protease modulation. Wound Repair Regen. 2008;16(2):A19.
4. God’s Little Devotional Book. Colorado Springs, CO; Honor Books. 1995:289–290.
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